Seven killed in India chopper crash

DEHRADUN: Seven people were killed Tuesday when a helicopter bringing Hindu pilgrims back from a shrine high in the Indian Himalayas crashed in the mountains.

The pilot and all six pilgrims on board died when the chopper came down during the flight from Kedarnath temple, disaster response official Nandan Singh Rajwar told AFP from the crash site.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, Rajwar said.

Kedarnath temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, stands at an altitude of 3,584 metres (around 11,750 feet) in the northern state of Uttarakhand and is thronged by pilgrims from across India in the summer, when access is possible.

It is one of several important shrines to Hindu gods dotted high in the Indian Himalayas, sometimes many hours of arduous trekking from the nearest road.

A cottage industry of helicopter charter firms has developed to serve wealthy pilgrims who want to worship at the sites but prefer to reach them more easily than on foot.

India's civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Twitter that the crash was "extremely unfortunate" and his ministry was "ascertaining the magnitude of the loss".